That which we call anxiety: Differences in resting state brain connectivity for two commonly used anxiety measures - STAI-T and GAD-7

GAD-7 and STAI-T are two most commonly used measures of anxiety. The 7-item GAD taps into generalized anxiety disorder, whereas STAI-T comprises 20 items that tap into trait anxiety. Despite the differences implied by their names, the two measures mostly overlap in content, lack a clear distinction in severity, and are often used interchangeably in research and practice to evaluate anxiety levels. Nevertheless, the two measures differ in several ways, including differentially tapping into irritation, rumination and panic, and reporting on acute problems vs. general feelings. Our study investigated potential differences between the measures in the whole-brain connectivity using resting state EEG data from 34 adolescent participants. We found only a moderate correlation between the GAD-7 and STAI-T scores. For STAI-T no associations with resting state connectivity were found. In contrast, for GAD-7 a number of significant whole-brain connectivity links were found in theta, alpha, and beta bands and for the total activity. Overall, the results suggest that these measures of anxiety capture somewhat different neural processes, and that further research is needed to improve conceptualization of anxiety and precision of measurement in research and practice.